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Steve Fossett and Mark Rebholz will be flying across the Atlantic from
Newfoundland to Ireland sometime in the next few weeks in a replica of a 1919
Vickers Vimy, duplicating the flight of Alcock and Brown in that year which was
the first non-stop tansatlantic flight.
Although they will have the benefit of the best modern meteorological
information, Fossett and Rebholz plan to navigate with a sextant. From the May 30
issue of "Aviation Week & Space Technology":
" But Rebholz will be faithful to Alcock and Brown's navigational pedigree,
relying on a compass, watch, nautical sextant with a bubble horizon (because
the horizon won't always be visible) and a drift indicator.
'I want to focus attention on the achievement of Brown as a pioneer of
aerial navigation,' he says. 'Anybody can go buy a GPS from Radio Shack. That's no
challenge.' "
And:
" Still, a camera will record their progress on National Geographic's web
site, which prompts Vimy owner Peter McMillan to joke, 'Ironically, everyone
in the world will know exactly where they are even if they don't.' "
The Vickers Vimy is a First World War era British biplane which was designed
as a bomber though it apparently saw little action. Instead it made its fame
in various long-distance flights in the early history of aviation. This is
the same Vimy replica that flew from London to Adelaide in 1994.
-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
